Mumbai Under Terror Attack(Breaking News)

I am just going over CNN live pictures over the terrorist mayhem that has been unleashed on Indian trade hub Mumbai by islamic terrorist extremists and its quite shocking .More than 100 people are feared dead in attack currently being blamed on the group Deccan Mujahedeen.

Gunmen in small groups armed with Grenades and automatic rifles have unleashed terror on ten popular tourist sites including the epic and magnificent hotel Taj Mahal , hotel oberoi, train stations etc

The terrorists opened fire at nearly half a dozen places in south Mumbai at around 10pm on Wednesday, and soon took hundreds, including foreigners and businessmen, hostage. Gunmen opened fire from AK-47 rifles at the city’s busiest railway terminal, CST, killing nearly 20 people.

Fear swept through the city, as frequent gunfire was heard from public places. Explosive-laden vehicles, including a taxi near the international airport, blew up. The authorities decided to call in the army early this morning and sought additional commandos from Delhi.

Terrorists took hundreds hostage in the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels in south Mumbai, minutes after they had fired with their AK-47 rifles. They threw hand-grenades at the Oberoi hotel, setting two floors aflame.As we speak Police are still evacuating the building with sniffer dogs, sharpshooters etc engaged in the activity.Its scary!

What a sad affair for the world and a lesson to the security intelligence apparatus all over the world. I hope Kenya's anti terrorism outfit take a lesson that terrorists are morphing in their tactics and now are adopting a widespread sporadic shooting of civilians in public places most likely visited by tourists.This kind of tactic stretches the response team and can very easily overwhelm! CNN reported that Indian Police in Mumbai were overwhelmed by the well co-ordinated attacks and have had to call in the military. The question for Kenya's internal security apparatus is how long can it take for the Kenyan Military to be up and operationally responsive to such an attack and whether there is a strategic well co-ordinated response plan by the relevant departments including the health services, fire brigade, bomb squad, ambulance service etc seeing that islamic extremists groups from Somalia recently threatened the Republic.....The Threat is real! No one is safe the question is how do you respond when it begins?

For those Kenyans having relatives in Mumbai and eager to know their well being there are a number of new media bloggers responding to the crisis as seen at :http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/11/26/live-blog-mumbai-residents-online-community-react-to-terror-attacks.aspx where information is being shared.USHAHIDI can just be deployed there to crowd source information from first account witnesses. A sad day indeed for the World and something to learn from!

Bloggers Branding South Africa

The Kenyan blogging community is vibrant with its A-List bloggers such as White African and Kenyan Pundit,David Kobia, Eric Wesonga etc receiving international recognition and accolades! But the question remains whether with strategic partnerships with both Government, civil society and corporate companies they can be of more positive influence in Kenya's development ,branding and the realisation of economic growth as envisioned in Kenya's economic vision 2030 programme.

I believe that some of the industry players i.e. tourism sector could borrow a leaf from the immense sphere of influence that south african bloggers are generating especially in marketing and branding of South Africa as a tourism destination. Last week i came accross this intitiative featured in South Africa's Mail & Guardian Online where by top notch USA bloggers had been invited by the International Marketing Council of SA (IMC) alongside South African bloggers with intent to generate some highly entertaining and informative web content – words, pictures, audio and video - about the South Africa.Among the bloggers invited were :

• Renee Blodgett and Ray Lewis - of down the avenue Blog
  
• Zadi Diaz - ZadiDiaz.com
• Mona Gable - The Huffington Post
• John Gartner - Matter Network
• Chris Morrison - VentureBeat
• David Sasaki - Global Voices Online
• Eliane Fioret - Ubergizmo
• Graeme Wood - The American Scene, The Smart Set, TheAtlantic.com

According to the article " The IMC is in the business of promoting South Africa as a destination for investment and travel and as a source of innovation and high quality goods and services. It calls itself the custodian of Brand South Africa, but not, mind, the owner. Today, the owner of any brand is the consumer. Thanks to the internet and the blogosphere the consumer now wields more power than ever before in history".What a positive viewpoint and step in the right direction!

It is indeed beyond doubt that the internet especially blogging and social media is becoming an increasing force in the shapping and influencing of how people decide to spend their time and money!Therefore it is only prudent that the Kenyan corporate scene starts taking advantageof this medium by using succesful webprenneurs especially bloggers who have already carved a niche in the online market. To demonstrate this consider the following in a day my blog gets 60 to 70 new viewers most of whom happen to be foreigners and since i started monitoring my traffic with the geoblog this blog has received more than 23,000 site visits ; of these only 6,000 are Kenyans.As it is this blog is then a powerful advertisement medium as exhibited in the figures .Due to this the site was included in the crazy about Kenya website (recently featured in the BBC) linkroll as a news portal of some of the interesting news about our Country!

On the otherhand i would like to challenge my bloggers to vere off from covering politics(dissapointing realm) and stress on positive attributes of Kenya, Sights to see, places to visit...the big five animals of Africa,products and innovation, human resource etc.Posts that will both add value to themselves and their site visitors.Indeed from the foregoing i challenge among others the Kenya Tourism Board to take the cue!

Pamela Jelimo-Kenya's New Wonder Gal !

Born on December 5, 1989 in Kapsabet Kenya's new 800 metres Beijing olympic Gold medalist Pamela Jelimo is destined for greater heights as she is poised to be crowned the 2008 IAAF Woman athlete for the year tommorow in Monaco at the World Athletes Gala.

Jelimo has become overly famous more so for her use of interjectory words "perhaps, actually, maybe i can say....Jelimo(Dubbed Kapsabet Express !) has fast become one of Kenya's favourite and perhaps(SIC)most entertaining athlete!

Her feat of victorious wins in the 800 meters race especially after bagging the coveted US $1 Million Golden League jackpot at only 18 years of age this year just make her the favourite athlete to watch for the IAAF Awards tomorrow nite!Among the finalists of the 2008 world athletes of the year include:

Men :1.Kenenisa Bekele ETHIOPIA 2.Usain Bolt JAMAICA 3. Dayron Robles CUBA
Women :1.Tirunesh Dibaba ETHIOPIA 2.Yelena Isinbayeva RUSSIA 3.Pamela Jelimo KENYA

Here at Nairobian we wish her all the best in her astounding career and accomplishments!

UPDATE: Jamaican Usain Bolt and Russian Yelena Isinbayeva emerged the victors yesterday night after being Male & Female Athletes of the Year! Pamela Jelimo won the Revelation of the Year Award..!